Proud to host the first world-wide competition to celebrate the outstanding achievements and influence of Coach Zbigniew Czajkowski, Capital Fencing Academy held our inaugural Czajkowski Sabre Cup event on Saturday, October 21! Coach Zbigniew, Poland’s head and Olympic Team coach for many years is still very active in his 96th year. He has trained many Olympic and national champions in all three weapons, written more than 25 books and several hundred articles on fencing, and conducted seminars all over the world. Czajkowski lives by his own saying, “The only people who get old are those who have the time and desire to do so.”

We had a strong group of 38 fencers, with some amazing results for our Capital fencers:

1st Nicolas Del Vecchio, updated his A rating to an A17

2nd Littleton Riggins, updated his B rating to a B17

3rd Kyle Lee, updated his E rating to a B17

3rd Alessandro Contreras

7th Jonathan Simak, updated his E rating to a C17

8th Natalie Olsen, one of the youngest fencers at the event, previously unrated, got her C17

Competing against 11 other international teams today, the USA men’s sabre team took the Silver! Congratulations to all the USA team members: Carl Badger, Victor Bianchini, Dmitri Koplov, Phil Sbarbaro, David Seuss and Ron Thornton!

Capital fencer, Ron Thornton, represented Team USA at the 2017 Fencing Veteran World Championships Men’s Sabre 50-59 event this past week in Maribor, Slovenia. Ron finished 3-3 in the first round of pools, being seeded 30th place out of 67 fencers from all over the world. Pulling off an incredible upset against the 3rd seeded fencer from France, Ron had to beat another American to finish 8th !

Capital again had great results the rest of the weekend in Anaheim, CA. Honor Johnson took the silver in the Cadet Women’s Sabre event, in a strong field of 139 fencers! Supporting her sister, Merit cheered Honor on with lots of positive encouragement throughout the weekend. See the attached photo.

In the 181-person Division 1 Men’s Sabre event, we want to recognize Alessandro Contreras and Colin Campbell (Notre Dame freshman and Capital alumni) on their top 32 finishes, earning them national points! Congratulations also go out to Nat Landau on his top 16 finish in the Cadet Men’s Sabre event on the final day of the tournament!

Capital sent eight fencers to the first North American Cup of the fencing season, held in Anaheim, CA this past weekend. There were over 2,200 of the top fencers from around the country competing, along with many Olympians and past national champions.

Highlights from the weekend included Honor Johnson medaling in both Division 1 and Cadet Women’s sabre, updating her rating to an A17!

Capital fencers Alessandro Contreras, Amit Hanadari-Levy, Honor Johnson, Nat Landau and Marta Lasota all earned national points for their finishes in the top 34 of their events. Congratulations to all our fencers who competed this past weekend! Go Capital!

Capital Fencing Academy’s Ron Thornton is headed off to Maribor, Slovenia to represent team USA at the 2017 Veteran World Championships. Ron finished the 2016-2017 fencing season second overall in Vet 50 Men’s Sabre, qualifying him for Worlds. Coach Dariusz Gilman has been coaching Ron since Capital first opened its doors four years ago. Ron has been fencing for about 20 years and he says he still learns something new from Capital’s coaches and his club mates at every practice. We wish Ron much success in Maribor. Go Capital! Capital Fencing Academy’s Ron Thornton is headed off to Maribor, Slovenia to represent team USA at the 2017 Veteran World Championships. Ron finished the 2016-2017 fencing season second overall in Vet 50 Men’s Sabre, qualifying him for Worlds. Coach Dariusz Gilman has been coaching Ron since Capital first opened its doors four years ago. Ron has been fencing for about 20 years and he says he still learns something new from Capital’s coaches and his club mates at every practice. We wish Ron much success in Maribor. Go Capital!

Honor Johnson, the youngest athlete representing Team USA and Capital Fencing Academy at the 2017 European Cadet World Cup sabre fencing tournament held in Konin, Poland, brought home a silver medal. Honor entered her third cadet international tournament ranked 19th in the world. She went undefeated at 6-0 in the first pool and 3-3 in the second pool in the first day of competition to advance to the table of 64. Based on the pool results, Honor went into the second day of competition ranked 40th, having to defeat higher seeded fencers from Russia, Ukraine and Italy in the direct elimination round before losing by a single touch in the gold medal bout against a fellow American. Bravo!